I was also thinking how funny it would be if print pubs ran readers letters/comments of the nature you find here every month – they’d need to publish a whole separate issue devoted soley to “Readers Write Back.” They could bundle it together as a special supplement to the regular magazine, like VF or Vogue does with Fashion Rocks.

]]>By: ABhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4545
Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:44:47 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4545Although I agree in some way with Berge’s perspective, I do feel that it is just typical Berge. I love YSL (have ALL his books), but it was just a re-run show at the end and it had run out of steam, and it needed fresh air. Yves is a genius to me also, but times change.

The big mistake Berge made was letting go of the house, which fundementally meant that Alber Elbaz was lost in the transition in accordance with the deal that was struck prior. Look what Alber has done with Lanvin!!!! He was the only Dauphin….Berge knows it, that is why he took him from Guy Laroche in the first place. They took the money and ran, and now they should either admit it or shut up. They sold the Couture off, they could have kept it all and started the fondation. You can’t have it all I guess.

P.S. On Tim Blanks, very well respected and surely deserved. Last name says it all really on a journalistic level. Sometimes I just think what is his point..I mean I’m know intellectual as many here know, but like what is he babbling on about?

Great post. I think you’re right on about this blog and its appeal. The regulars are much more informed and intellectual than the mainstream follower. I guess every critic gets the audience they deserve.

I think Style.com used to be great for finding photos of the shows, and at one point, they were the only resource on the web. However, you can find these photos everywhere now, and I think their “journalists” lacks bite or opinion. Their reviews are either on the fence or questionable (compare and contrast Tim Blanks’ and Cathy’s reviews of Thom Browne), which, I’m sure, is partially driven by advertising concerns. And their “blog” doesn’t even allow readers to leave comments.

Jen

]]>By: The Fashion Informerhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4535
Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:28:20 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4535Alex A., I think the reason you don’t read the type of views/reviews on couture (or any runway show) in the major monthlies vs. a daily paper or blog is yes, a bit of advertising concern. But also the fact that mainstream fashion magazines (be it Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar or Elle) have ALWAYS been aimed more at presenting the “best of show,” to so speak, and offering it up with an easy-to-digest reader service angle (e.g., here’s what’s great, here are the major trends, and here are some suggestions on how to incoporate them into your own life/wardrobe this season).

These magazines are aspirational by nature – that’s their purpose – and negativity doesn’t really play into that message. Plus, the fact that there’s a three month lead time before they go to press means any runway criticism – good for bad – of the kind you find here in the Times would be very old news by the time it’s seen in a monthly fashion mag, especially today when everthing’s dissected and digested instantaneously on the information superhighway. (Next!)

Also, re: the detailed level of thoughtful analysis you find in “On the Runway” comments vs. what you read in Vogue, style.com, etc.: It seems to me that the readers (or at least the commentors) on this blog tend to be unusually devoted followers of fashion and fashion history, and are more interested in unraveling the philosophical, social and even economic implications or statements found in any given collection or designer’s work than the average reader (which is great, and which is what brings me back here again and again – Cathy notwithstanding). But we’re kind of a niche group, and the target audience of most fashion monthlies is much broader and less given to reading (or caring about) the kind of in-depth, behind-the-seams analysis everyone here relishes. They want it quick, they want it short, and they want it to be instantly accessible.

That’s just the nature of the beast, and I think comparing the info you find here to the info you find in Vogue/Elle/Harper’s, etc. is like comparing applies and oranges. The mediums serve different purposes and an entirely different audience by design.

Lastly, I have to disgree with you on the style.com reportage. I’ve always found them to be pretty balanced – you definitely know whether the reviewer liked or didn’t like a show, and why – and they seem to offer up constructive criticism when warranted (the key word here being constructive).

Having reviewed shows myself, I know it’s all too easy to slam a designer’s work when reviewing a bad or disappointing runway show – especially when you’ve sat through a week of mostly “eh” outings. But it’s important to remember that whether you liked it or not, the designer did put a lot of time, thought and effort into the creation of the collection, so tempering your words so that they’re constructive, rather than destructive, is, to me, the hallmark of a good critic, and it’s something style.com – and Cathy – usually excel in.

]]>By: The Fashion Informerhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4533
Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:44:25 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4533“Sometimes it’s a little too much.” Well, yea, but I thought that was the point of couture: To allow the designer’s imagination free reign and be as over-the-top as they like without feeling any commercial or practical constraints?

]]>By: Alex A.http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4531
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:58:38 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4531E.Frantz thanks for the recommendations. I try to read Hillary Alexander’s columns whenever I get a chance. Sarah Mower’s commentary on the other hand, not so much unfortunately. I always feel like she’s sitting on the fence in her reviews for Style.com. She never seems to dig deep enough. But again maybe it’s a question of what she gets paid to write vs. what she wants to write. I’m a huge fan of the writer Antonia Fraser-Cavassoni though. I’ve heard and read her comment on the Haute Couture several times and it’s always enlightening. You leave feeling like you’ve learnt something new out of it.

I was also pleased that the International Herald Tribune had the guts to cover Anne Valerie Hash’s collection considering she doesn’t sell high priced hand bags. It was just a paragraph but I shared their views. (They were also one of the first to cover Christophe Decarnin’s first collection for Balmain). I don’t think the point of the exercise is to just cover young designers just because they are new to the scene, but to talk about them because they are actually doing interesting work. There are a lot of new comers to couture whose work I don’t particularly care for.

Some times I wonder if I focus on things that people just don’t care about. But I would rather say I didn’t like a collection (or at least didn’t care for it) even if the most established fashion writers praise it (as in the Armani show). I think the purpose of a critique is to make you look at a show or a design from a different angle. But the ultimate decision as to whether you liked it or not should rest with the individual.

In fact I felt I gleaned more from the couture shows this season from reading everyone’s comments on here, than by simply going through the official newspaper and online reviews. You’ll never get views like this on Vogue or Style.com because there is a major concern they would lose valuable advertising revenue. It’s a vicious circle and you can’t blame them for that.

]]>By: j-http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4529
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:28:25 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4529Did anyone see a striking resemblance between chanel couture and Pilati at YSL? I’m not trying to diminish the Chanel show, I just thought there were some very distinct similarities that prove to me how right on Pilati has been and continues to be.
I loved Givenchy. I thought it was awesome!
]]>By: kellyhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4527
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:55:48 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4527Yes, I thought that Tisci was very interesting. The animal prints superimosed on those silhouettes made me think of 15th century prints of the “world up side down,” wherein the hunter becomes the hunted. And these pieces fit well within the whole arc of the show where Tisci seemed to take the current of the elongated body and then transformed it in sly ways in order to instill it with his own dreamy vision. For instance, the tactile combinations that arise from the use of the cinched waist, feathered fur, and leather laces on the thigh high boots. It’s as if he was attempting to reach into his own unconscious and touch and experience the objects in his dreams. It’s not far off from Neo Rauch’s show at the Met, where Rauch uses a Social Realist idiom but subverts it by grinding it down through his own associative dreamwork. He bends the collective vision down to the experiential level of the individual (all the while clothing his figures in hunting jackets). Tisci is doing something very similar by using the readily identifiable, long-legged silhouette that has dominated for a while now, but he refashions it into something so wonderfully personal.
]]>By: PabloDiablohttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4525
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 04:09:35 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4525Gaultier was fantastic. Cathy how is it you can return the evening of the fourth and have nothing to say about his show? Fess up!
]]>By: E. Frantzhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4523
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:42:18 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4523AND Alex A…There’s a bit on the couture designers you mentioned, Rolland and Hash ( sounds like a country music duo, don’t they? hehehe) on the style.com blog, writen by Sarah Mower, who as you would know, also covers the big-name couture shows for style.com – scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page- there’s even a pic from Hash’s show.
…and there’s also a item elsewhere on style.com about Mouret’s new collection, but I haven’t read any of these yet…have to wait for my next break!

]]>By: E. Frantzhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4521
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:16:50 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4521OOPS! reading my post #21, it sounds so misleading…I meant ARMANI seemed to have been on the Dynasty trip in my second paragraph, NOT Lacroix.I really should read my own posts before hitting that button!
]]>By: E. Frantzhttp://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/comment-page-1/#comment-4519
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:14:02 +0000http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/across-the-seine/#comment-4519Oh and BTW, Alex A… The U.K Telegraph reports on lots of the lesser known names in the Haute Couture showing this week. I don’t have time to read the reviews as yet ( just ate up my entire break posting here!) but here’s the link if you or anyone else is interested,

…and yes Autre, I think Tisci’s developing quite nicely too. At least it’s encouraging that somebody of his age wants to continue with Haute Couture in the first place!… and Givenchy actually has such a rich history- even apart from the Audrey years- that it’s exciting to see what he will do with it.